1. Technical Field
The invention relates in general to architecture and a method for supporting zero intermediate frequency (ZIF) or low intermediate frequency (LIF)/intermediate frequency (IF) systems.
2. Background
Referring to FIG. 1, a schematic illustration illustrating traditional architecture for supporting zero intermediate frequency (ZIF) or low intermediate frequency (LIF)/intermediate frequency (IF) systems according to an embodiment is shown. The architecture 100 for supporting ZIF or LIF/IF systems shown in FIG. 1 support a set of ZIF system or two sets of LIF/IF systems at different time. The architecture 100 for supporting ZIF or LIF/IF systems includes an integrated circuit 110 and a switch element 120. On the ZIF system 130, the integrated circuit 110 utilizes 4 pins Pin_(1) to Pin_(4) to respectively receive in-phase signals I+ and I− and quadrature signals Q+ and Q− of the ZIF system 130. On the LIF/IF systems 140_1 and 140_2, the architecture 100 for supporting ZIF or LIF/IF systems utilizes the switch element 120 to switch between the LIF/IF systems 140_1 and 140_2 to input differential input signals In+ and In− of the LIF/IF systems 140_1 or 140_2 into the pins Pin_(1) and Pin_(2) of the integrated circuit 110.
Referring to FIG. 2, a schematic illustration illustrating traditional architecture for supporting ZIF or LIF/IF systems according to another embodiment is shown. The architecture 200 for supporting ZIF or LIF/IF systems shown in FIG. 2 support N sets of ZIF system or M sets of LIF/IF systems at the same time, N and M being positive integers. On each set of ZIF systems 230_1 to 230_N, an integrated circuit 210 needs 4 pins to receive in-phase signals I+ and I− and quadrature signals Q+ and Q− of each set of ZIF systems 230_1 to 230_N. On each set of LIF/IF systems 240_1 to 240_N, the integrated circuit 210 needs 2 pins to receive differential input signals In+ and In− of each set of LIF/IF systems 240_1 or 240_2. That is, the integrated circuit 210 totally needs (4N+2M) pins for supporting N sets of ZIF systems and M sets of LIF/IF systems at the same time.
To conclude, the traditional architecture 100/200 for supporting ZIF or LIF/IF systems has to increase additional pins or an additional switch element to support applications of the ZIF or the LIF/IF systems, thus causing the still high costs and uneasy applications.